I’m not the top-dog critic at The Dallas Morning News, a position reserved for and earned by Leslie Brenner, so take this only for what it’s worth. But every time I eat at the Pyramid Restaurant, I am reminded how deft a chef Andre Natera is.

This was driven home last week at the media dinner previewing the fall menu, which will be offered in the restaurant through Dec. 20.

So many items were so good! The burrata appetizer (pictured below) held some of the best burrata I’ve had in Dallas, with a real demarcation between the exterior and the creamy center, and those gorgeous pink curls are wafer-thin slices of speck. Natera added butternut squash puree (the smear) and a fig reduction for a wonderfully understated dish.

The burrata appetizer, with arugula and sour dough croutons.

Understatement seems to be a theme in his cooking. He has mastered the art of “less is more” where too often in Dallas more is seen as more. His dishes are complex and imaginative, but I don’t get overkill. Moreover, I did get a great sense of fall in the menu’s ingredients.

I loved the miso-cured foie gras torchon with little wiggly squares of apple-ponzo gelee, bonito flakes atop the foie gras (an inspired combination) and a touch of spicy-hot yuzu kosho, with brioche slices. Several entries on the fall menu show an Asian influence, one of the ideas chef told me he picked up in the Pacific Northwest when he was there earlier this year.

Highlights of the new menu include oxtail ravioli, lobster dumplings (did not get to try), the most delicate hamachi crudo, duck two ways served over French green lentils, elegant roasted lamb with lamb sausage over white bean puree (“to have the flavors of cassoulet but not serve a rustic dish”), and for dessert, Maggie Huff‘s dazzling candied walnut tart with a swoosh of brown, gold and red “colors of fall” across the plate. Pyramid sommelier Hunter Hammett paired the dessert with a beautiful Haak Winery “Madeira” Jacquez from the Gulf Coast (although I personally dislike any stateside winery using geographically specific wine terms such as madeira, port or champagne).

But as Brenner pointed out in a blog post earlier this year, there’s the nagging question of whether fine hotel dining is in crisis. We’ve already lost another of my favorites, Craft. Here’s hoping the Pyramid, located inside the Fairmont Hotel, can weather the storm.